Checked gamma settings on both monitor and Windows? I know incorrect settings can make blacks look terrible, and anything highlighted can become a mess of coloured pixels.
The quickest way to find out if it's your monitor or not is to take a couple of in-game screenshots and view those screenshots on a different monitor - if they look just as bad, it's not your monitor that's the problem. Also, you can post up the screenshot here so we can look and compare it to our own experiences.
It was the monitor! No doubt about it. I purchased the Acer x34 and I have no problems with the colors. On a side note the Acer was on sale at Microcenter and was the display model. As a result, it was $400 off the $829 price.