Pros and Cons 

Native Widescreen

Pro: Sharpest, clearest image possible
Pro: When correct FOV is supported, more of the environment is shown
Pro: This is what you bought your widescreen for!
Pro: When designed with widescreen in mind, image and FOV is shown the way the developers intended
Con: You'll need some heavy duty hardware to handle the native res of a 20" monitor (1680x1050)
Con: If you can't get native widescreen to work, you're stuck with the other options below...

Centered Output

Pro: Sharpest, clearest image possible
Pro: FOV and image is shown the way the developers intended
Pro: Can run at lower resolutions if hardware is not capable
Con: Almost half of your screen is wasted
Con: At lower resolutions, games lack immersion - it's like playing on a 12" monitor

Scaled Image (stretched)

Pro: Fills the entire screen; could impress grandparents and dogs
Con: Interpolation severely deteriorates image
Con: Image is not the way developers intended the game to look

Scaled Image (fixed aspect ratio)

Pro: FOV and image is shown the way the developers intended
Pro: The majority of the screen is being utilized
Pro: Can have 'normal' looking games on lower end hardware
Con: Interpolation deteriorates image

All in all, I have to say that a fixed aspect ratio scaled image is the next best thing to a native widescreen resolution in games. If I were to give each style a score of 1-100, with 100 being a perfect image (native widescreen), I would have to give fixed aspect scaling a score of 75. Stretched scaling would get a 40, and centered output, because of its small size, would probably get a 65.

Now keep an eye on our Widescreen Games Database . If you know of a game that works in widescreen, drop us a line! If not, well at least you know what mode to choose.

My only hope is that more developers realize the potential that is being wasted by not offering correct resolutions and field of view. My theory is that with the progression of widescreen displays being favored for console gaming, it will eventually leak over to PC gaming, where more and more gamers are using widescreen monitors as their first LCD display.

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