The games to avoid on an ultrawide display

A reference database is only worth something if it also tells you what doesn't work. These games aren't bad — several are outstanding — but on an ultrawide display they disappoint: the image stays boxed into 16:9 with black bars on either side, or the format is accepted at the cost of a cropped field of view that feels like looking down a tunnel.

The causes are almost always technical: an older engine that locks the aspect ratio, a UI hard-coded for 16:9, or a competitive game that deliberately limits the field of view so ultrawide owners don't gain an edge.

Nothing stops you from playing them, of course. But it's better to know going in than to spend an hour hunting for an option that doesn't exist.

1. 1
   

   VALORANT 2020

   FPS 21:9 · Avoid 32:9 · Avoid

   VALORANT uses the first-person view typical of competitive FPS games, but Riot Games deliberately locked rendering to 16:9 to keep things fair between players regardless of hardware. On a 5120×1440 screen, the image stays confined to the center of the panel, surrounded by huge black bars on either side that never move.

2. 2
   

   Path of Exile 2 2024

   Action-RPG 21:9 · Excellent 32:9 · Avoid

   Path of Exile 2 shares the first game's server architecture, this time with a ratio cap deliberately set at 21:9 by Grinding Gear Games. Beyond that limit, at 32:9 on 5120x1440, entities and visual effects would disappear before reaching the edges of the screen because server-side serialization distances do not keep up, which would make the game unplayable in any clean sense at this ratio.

3. 3
   

   Street Fighter 6 2023

   Combat 21:9 · Avoid 32:9 · Avoid

   Street Fighter 6 offers no 32:9 option: the image stays locked at 16:9, framed by fixed gray bars on either side, both during matches and in story mode. That decision most likely stems from a desire to preserve competitive fairness online, since a wider field of view could give some players a visual advantage.

4. 4
   

   Elden Ring Nightreign 2025

   Roguelite 21:9 · Avoid 32:9 · Avoid

   Elden Ring Nightreign actually renders the image at ultrawide resolution internally, but FromSoftware deliberately adds black bars to restrict the visible play area to 16:9, a choice confirmed by the community shortly after release. In practice, switching to 5120x1440 brings no field-of-view gain at all: the central image is identical to the 16:9 one, simply surrounded by black on either side, with no benefit for exploration or combat.

5. 5
   

   Dead by Daylight 2016

   Horreur 21:9 · Avoid 32:9 · Avoid

   Dead by Daylight is played third-person over the shoulder, with a field of view that long varied with screen configuration before being deliberately restricted. At 5120×1440, the game now forces a 16:9 frame surrounded by fixed black bars, the extended view having been removed by the developers because it was judged advantageous in a match, particularly for spotting silhouettes off to the sides.

6. 6
   

   Cuphead 2017

   Action-aventure 21:9 · Avoid 32:9 · Avoid

   Cuphead offers no 32:9 support, neither officially nor through any working fix as of today: the old hex-editing methods on the executable stopped working after the game's latest updates. Even back when they still worked, the boss levels and the tutorial continued to show black bars, since their hand-painted backgrounds are still designed and locked to 16:9 whatever workaround is used.

7. 7
   

   Lost Ark 2022

   Action-RPG 21:9 · Average 32:9 · Avoid

   Lost Ark never received support for the 32:9 ratio: the game's isometric camera stays locked to a frame close to 16:9, with thick black bars on either side of the screen at 5120x1440 rather than a widened image. Neither the field of view nor the UI proportions adapt, unlike other, better-supported isometric ARPGs.

How this list is built

It gathers the games rated "Avoid" on at least one of the two formats, or whose support is "No". The individual statuses (format support, cutscenes, mod required) are explained on the Method page. Each entry links to its full French page, which carries its sources — English versions are on the way.