Try going for the head as much as you can, also,The crossbow helps if you have it since it's ammo can be made by you, if you're collecting trap parts that is.
Yeah, I've been doing a good job collecting trap parts, kinda regret actually disarming them all the time, feel that I should at least leave the string traps as is. Still don't have the crossbow. I reached the house where there's a guy with a rifle but I feel overwhelmed by the enemies there, far too many of them.
It doesn't technically stretch, just reduces the FOV.
I actually find the default aspect ratio to be unplayable. Sitting that close, I actually get a headache quite quickly. I find that setting the aspect ratio to 2 or 2.1 reduces the size of the black bars while keeping your FOV decent.
Hmm, might try that later.