Why only support 16:9 resolutions, I don't get it.

I still game on a 1280x1024 (5:4) high quality lcd monitor. Perfect resolution for me while sitting close.

I played the witcher 2 wishing I could get it to go full screen. For cutscenes I don't mind black borders to preserve the intended composition and making it look like a movie, but why can't I get full screen during normal play. I'm controlling the camera and making my own composition while playing.

I just tried the dungeon siege 3 demo and the huge black borders make it pretty much unplayable to me. Since you have to rotate the camera with A and D (inexcusable by itself) you can only walk from bottom to top, so you have the smallest field of view in the direction of travel. That doesn't make any sense in a top down hack 'n slash game. It's like playing with blinders on, it doesn't zoom out far enough to see ahead. And to top it off the camera zooms in when it gets close to a wall completely obscuring everything instead of making the walls see through. This game is such a far cry from dungeon siege 2.

Also in most FPS games I like the added awareness of the vertical axis from a 5:4 aspect ratio. As long as it's not done like Bioshock where the sides were cut off on pc instead of expanding the view up and down. Metro 2033 did it right and let you adjust the fov in the config files, that should be a standard option for pc games.

Just leave 16:9 for cutscenes, racing games and 3D games where all the action is pretty much on the same level.

I did, then I folded and got a 16:9 monitor (for some reason they are far cheaper than the same size 16:10) now games that don't support 16:9 are the problem lol,

Wait, what? There are games that only support 16:9?

I suppose it's not really my problem as I have a 16:9 monitor... But it does suck. 4:3 monitors aren't too uncommon just yet, and it shouldn't be hard to support them properly. What about 16:10? Would it work any better? Or do these games not support 16:10 either?

Not really.
All my monitors are widescreen.

No, no 16:10 support either.

I don't need a 16:9 monitor for everything else I do on the pc, but now I need to upgrade to keep playing games in the same vertical resolution i've been used to for years. So I would need a 1920x1080 monitor, and probably also a new graphics card to render the extra pixels at the same fps, which also means installing a new power supply nowadays.

And sure then there are no black bars, but it still doesn't make sense for games where the vertical axis is just as important as the horizontal, ie rts and top down action games. I don't see any point in playing civilization or tropico in widescreen.

not 5:4 but 4:3 support is coming it looks like.

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witcher-2-patch-1-3-will-add-support-for-43-resolutions/

Im looking at my Witcher 2 Config right now and Im selected at 1920x1200 (16x10)

Hell, I even see 1280x1024

It is probably just the demos.  Makes sense they limit them to only the most popular of gaming resolutions.

I did not know some games did not allow 4:3. I mean its a PC you can usually change the settings yourself in the INI. I play games from 2001 with 16:10 res and it works perfect except for cut scenes, also some of the icons are a bit small.

That said, maybe you should consider a new screen they are not that expensive anymore, i imported mine for $200 (which is like nothing in my country) and it supports 1920×1200, 2ms and is 27".

Yes, and then it gives you black bars when you play the game in that resolution, so it only let me play at 1280x720 effectively.

Same as Dungeon Siege 3, I select 1280x1024 and it just fills the top and bottom of the screen with black.

More annoying are games that only support 16:9 resolutions without proper 16:10 support. I hate the black bars.