Shadowing looks really strange.

I own a 32' LCD Sanyo HDTV, and with some games, Ideally GTAIV and Mass Effect, shadows look really strange, almost fuzzy. In Mass Effect, for example, there is a lot of shadows on peoples faces, and it almost looks like there are fuzz balls on their faces. (I have the Movie filter turned off in Mass Effect, so it's not that.) And, In GTAIV, I can barely stand to play if the game is in daytime hours, because the shadows just plain hurt my eyes.

I was wondering If this had something to do with my TV's contrast ratio, which is about 1500:1.

Thanks!