The unveiling earlier today of Microsoft's new "Surface" tablets
was a strange one for me. Not because of the nature of the
product, but for its name. It's one Microsoft has been using for
years, only, for an entirely different device. One that, for a
while there, we thought could change the way we played games.
Surface is what Microsoft's range of large, touch-screen table
computers - first debited all the way back in 2007 - were (are?)
called, which for all their potential as business hubs or
educational devices were always hampered by their size and, more
importantly, astronomical cost.  The one area they showed true
potential in, though, was for games. And not even necessarily
video games. They way a Surface combined the technological
abilities of a computer with the intimacy of a...table meant
that board games were transformed on the device, becoming a
synthesis of the two that, as a player of both, seemed truly
exciting.  Here, for example, is the most badass game of
Settlers of Catan you've ever seen.