- Platforms
I remember first seeing an ultrawide monitor at my local MicroCenter and becoming enamored with it. It was a 21:9 and their demo had either Call of Duty or Battlefield for people to walk up and try out. My friend I was with dismissed it as a cheap gimmick, but something really clicked with me about this new sense of immersion as the game wrapped around my head, and I'd wished so badly I could afford to take one home with me. At the time, it was well out of my budget.
Years later, I was in a much better financial position and baited by the glowing reviews of Mr. Linus Tech Tips himself
While I was hesitant initially to drop as much as I did on a monitor, MicroCenter eventually offered it for a price which I couldn't refuse. After a year or so of owning it, I'd like to profess my love of my Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 monitor, and maybe see if anyone else is living the 32:9 or 21:9 high life here. I've had it for about a year or so now, and it's always a pickle when deciding between playing a game on this or my 77" LG C2 via my Series X. They're two of the best displays on the market and I feel absolutely blessed to own both.
Me experiencing a 5120x1440 resolution...
Seriously, you get hooked on it - like a drug. Maybe even moreso than 60+ FPS w/ G-SYNC or going higher than 1080p for the first time. It really opens up a whole new world of gaming.
With a lot of these games you'll see that the devs will have retained a more standard aspect ratio for cutscenes and the game fully reverts back to super ultrawide for the gameplay. This is usually handled relatively smoothly.
With that said, not every game natively supports such wild aspect resolutions, even modern ones (I'm looking at you Elden Ring) - which is changing, but some oldies will definitely surprise you.
For instance, I love that Star Wars: Empire at War from 2006 supports this resolution natively. That blew me away lol. Best surprise ever
For the games which don't, there's mods and workarounds with mixed success. I'm still learning how to get Skyrim to work without any UI issues. I'm not a big modding guy so it's gonna take me a second to get everything just right.
Seems like a lot of people use this Flawless Widescreen software which I've only just installed today and need to fiddle around with more
So yeah, I think it's one of the absolute neatest options of PC gaming which doesn't seem to be as widely adopted as it should be, but I adore the cult-like following these monitors have and enjoy being part of that scene. For me, it absolutely amps up the immersion and you begin to adore the additional screen real estate of not just a giant monitor, but one which allows you to see more of the game at once. That's never a bad thing.
Anyone else love ultrawide monitors?
