I Tried 21:9 Ultrawide Gaming (Again) in 2022!

Final Thoughts

There’s a growing number of games supporting ultrawide, and a few out there that really should have better support too. Alas, indie titles like Unpacking work great on 21:9. Strangely, even the latest Tetris Effect Connected has native support and looks great, if you’re into a bit of block stacking. There’s the latest Quake (Enhanced 2021 Version) with ray tracing, and boy does that look great, even if I have played it for a few decades over and over. I’d even suggest checking out the original Bioshock remaster, which is also well suited to wider displays and makes the game feel even more claustrophobic at times. Or one of the coolest games I’ve ever played, Spiritfarer is full of pretty visuals and a story that’ll hit your right in the feels.

I have to give a sound out to some other very popular games that have decent ultrawide support. Metro Exodus, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Final Fantasy XV and Ark: Survival Evolved. However, I didn’t bother playing them despite their popularity, as I found all of those games to be a bit crap, but hey, that’s just my opinion dude.

What does annoy me is that it’s the AAA games that look the best on ultrawide but also seem to be the most problematic. Red Dead Redemption 2 looks stunning but can suffer from black bars at times that require some modification to get the FOV right. Death Stranding seems to run at 21:9 and has slim black bars on the sides, so I’m not sure what the hell is going on there, but it still looks great. Horizon Zero Dawn has all the IN-GAME RENDERED cut-scenes in 16:9 and uses a blurring border to fill the display… can’t imagine why they couldn’t allow them the full aspect ratio and crop to 16:9 as required. Cyberpunk 2077 looks stunning, but let’s just say the game still has its issues and the FOV slider can leave things feeling cramped at times.

There are some true gems though, like Flight Simulator 2020, Mortal Kombat 11, Forza Horizon 5 and a few others that all just work beautifully from the moment you boot them up. Albeit, FS2020 is a beefy game to run at high resolutions, DLSS support is coming, and it’ll be certainly welcomed.

One thing is for sure though, playing around on the AOC CU34G3S 34″ Ultrawide has been a treat. So thank you AOC for leaving it with me for an extended period for this 2nd review of sorts. It’s a great monitor though, and I show you why in a more technical review, which you can read here! It’s also now available on Amazon for just £472.76 at the time of writing. There’s certainly an advantage to ultrawide, but it’s clear there’s still work to be done to improve support. However, the small inconveniences pale in comparison to the impressive gains.