It would appear nowadays, that the furthest thing from anyones mind is 4:3 resolutions. I don't know, maybe PC gamers still endorse them, but consoles sure don't seem to want to. At least the Xbox 360 doesn't.

(My blogs seem to have taken a turn to pointing out flaws, or simply discussing the 360 more than others, probably because imm sick of sony bashing :P)

Unlike many people, and perhaps it was a mistake, who knows, i bought a 4:3 HDTV.

What the heck is one of those? I hear you cry, well, the most common one, the one that i have, was originally marketed just before the 'HD revolution' as PC monitor/TV combos that could display regular television, SCART/composite/S-Video and VGA. Mine goes up to 1280x1024 (Although this sometimes causes problems as it's official max resolution is 1024x768)

Ok ok, i hear some of you saying it's not HD because the minimum HD size is 720p, well, i hate to break it to you, but regular TV is 640x480, so anything higher than that is 'high' definition.

That argument aside, i was happy back when it was my primary PC monitor, i could play all my games in lovely 4:3, and switch to (an aweful looking, unfortunate side effect) TV channels at my leisure.

Yet, when i bought my 360, i became unable to play it on a regular television, so when my PC bit the dust, i bought VGA cables and let rip, and it's been fantastic, im being able to squeeze a great deal out of such a old monitor. But something was wrong, only, i didnt notice until recently.

Letterboxing.

As you all know, widescreen is a requirement for being on the 360, but it would also appear than 4:3 is NOT.

Unlike a PC, where you have a multitude of options, the 360 gives you these options from it's home settings, not from inside the game, so whatever settings the game holds, are set in stone. Which is very unfortunate, as it would appear that most games will enforce a letterboxed widescreen at ANY resolution above regular SDTV resolution.

This, i feel, is a great shame. Why did developers not include the option to play at higher 4:3 resolutions? Oh sure, not many people are going to use them, but you managed to put them into the PC versions nonetheless...

From the list of games i own, here are the few that are completely playable in 4:3 up to 1280x1024

Amped 3

Call of Duty 2

What a sorry state of affairs, 2 out of 22 games support 4:3 resolutions. The rest are displayed in a letterbox format, some (especially ports) can't even do that properly. Lego Star Wars 2 being the prime culprit, not only am i forced to view it letterboxed into widescreen, but it doesn't support widescreen properly, the developers have just stretched it sideways.

This is the list of games i have that DO force letterboxing (that i know of, not trying all my games again right now), ones with widescreen related 'issues' will be marked with a *

Blue Dragon

**Bioshock** (Cuts the top and bottom of the screen)

Condemned

Crackdown

Dead Rising

Enchanted Arms

Gears of War

GRAW

**Hitman: Blood Money** (The issue is not technicly with 4:3, but with VGA cables)

King Kong

Lost Planet

Perfect Dark Zero

Splinter Cell: Double Agent

Stranglehold

Tomb Raider: Legend

Viva Pinata

What are your views on this? Outraged? Could care less? Do you see 4:3 as old or inferior? Maybe you think im kicking up a fuss about nothing? Opinions welcome.

EDIT:

I finally caved and decided to play oblivion again, only on 360 this time. Only to discover it too has 4:3 issues, looks like i really do need to update my telly, only having just (tentatively) lost my job, might be a while yet before i can. The game seems to think it is displaying widescreen, but it being squashed into 4:3, so everything appears rediculously thing/tall.