Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+
US EditionUS CA EditionCanada UK EditionUK AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Trending
  • Pokemon Winds and Waves
  • New Games for 2026
  • GamesRadar+ Replay
  • Mario Day deals
  1. Games
  2. Survival Horror
  3. The Evil Within

The Evil Within's letterboxes are now optional on consoles

News
By Connor Sheridan published 23 June 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Flipboard
  • Email
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Get the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more


By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful


Want to add more newsletters?

GamesRadar+

Every Friday

GamesRadar+

Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.

GTA 6 O'clock

Every Thursday

GTA 6 O'clock

Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.

Knowledge

Every Friday

Knowledge

From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.

The Setup

Every Thursday

The Setup

Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.

Switch 2 Spotlight

Every Wednesday

Switch 2 Spotlight

Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.

The Watchlist

Every Saturday

The Watchlist

Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.

SFX

Once a month

SFX

Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!


An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter

Eight months after The Evil Within came out, console players can finally go full-screen. A new update for the third-person horror game which lets players disable its contentious letterboxes is available now across all platforms.

Publisher Bethesda said the patch was based on community feedback to The Evil Within, which originally ran in an extra-wide 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Developer Tango Gameworks said this was part of the game's cinematic, claustrophobic vision, though skeptics theorized that rendering a smaller viewing area was also meant to improve performance.

A PC patch let player disable letterboxing (and bump The Evil Within's 30 frames-per-second cap up to 60) later in October, but it's pretty standard for PC games to offer more graphical options than their console counterparts. Now that everybody can drop the letterboxes, it's worth remembering that the game was designed with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio in mind, whether you think it was a worthwhile tradeoff or not.

"[It] prevents you from seeing the floor," senior producer Jason Bergman told NowGamer in a 2013 interview. "Any time you take something away from the player they’re very used to, it makes them uncomfortable[.]"

Later in that same interview, Bethesda VP of marketing Pete Hines said The Evil Within's difficulty is "part and parcel with the experience" and it "can’t feel casual and easy to get through." Since the new update also rebalances Casual difficulty "to be more forgiving to players with increased ammo amounts and adjustments to the game’s health bar," maybe artistic vision just has an eight-month expiration date.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
CATEGORIES
PC Gaming PlayStation PS4 Xbox Xbox One Platforms
Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Social Links Navigation
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.

Latest in Survival Horror
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
"They're not good enough," joke devs behind "self-feeding" horror giant stuck in the Steam Top 50 while others rot
 
 
Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem's unintentional Half-Life YouTuber ad website will be handed back to Capcom "for free" if it wants
 
 
Alyssa Ashcroft leads the way to escape in Resident Evil Requiem's Grace flashback
Resident Evil Requiem gets kawaii makeover to appease RE2 director, who's been begging for a scare-free game since 1998
 
 
A close-up of Grace talking with someone through glass in Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem Grace actor might be even more scared playing Capcom's horror game than her character is living it
 
 
Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem now inadvertently features an in-game ad for a Half-Life YouTuber
 
 
Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase
Remothered: Red Nun's Legacy has been exclusively announced to complete the survival horror trilogy
 
 
Latest in News
Slay the Spire 2
"Slay the Spire 2 has been out for merely a week and we have already hit 3 million units sold," says a stunned Mega Crit
 
 
Overwatch Jetpack Cat smiling smugly
"What if we could just drop 30 new heroes into Overwatch?": Marvel Rivals "definitely had an impact" on Blizzard
 
 
Overwatch's Brigitte offers you a hand up.
Overwatch director celebrates no longer being "the lowest-rated game on Steam" but he's not sure how to reach positive
 
 
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
"They're not good enough," joke devs behind "self-feeding" horror giant stuck in the Steam Top 50 while others rot
 
 
Donkey Kong Bananza
Donkey Kong Bananza devs admit the blatantly OP elephant transformation "probably went too far," but "it's fun"
 
 
Dragon Age
The best narrative designers are being inspired by the "excellent" design of your uncontrollable horniness
 
 
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. Overwatch Jetpack Cat smiling smugly
    1
    "What if we could just drop 30 new heroes into Overwatch?": Marvel Rivals "definitely had an impact" on Blizzard, says Overwatch boss, and a big factor was the response to new heroes
  2. 2
    Overwatch director celebrates no longer being "the lowest-rated game on Steam," but admits he's "not sure what it would take for us to move up to a positive score at this point"
  3. 3
    "They're not good enough," joke devs behind the "self-feeding" horror giant still in the Steam Top 50 while Friday the 13th, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Evil Dead multiplayers rot
  4. 4
    Donkey Kong Bananza devs admit the blatantly OP elephant transformation "probably went too far," but "it's fun" and "that's what matters most"
  5. 5
    The best narrative designers – from Call of Duty writers to BioWare vets – are being inspired by the "excellent" design of your uncontrollable horniness: "I've been reading a lot of fanfiction"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Careers
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...