boredgunner
It's just you, and others who can't see or appreciate what goes into games (and can't see what's missing in others).  Or perhaps you actually just missed the great games this year; the ones created with a sense of pride, the ones that really follow the creators' vision, the ones that are both innovative and creative.  2014 was a hell of a lot better than 2013.  
 
Dragon Age: Inquisition is easily the most ambitious game ever made, like it or not.  That is an objective statement.  It raises the bar just because of what it set out to do: what other games have attempted to bring together a massive, highly detailed, and highly interactive and divergent multi-regional open world design (that changes based on the player's interaction and choice) with strong story/character focus, a branching plot based on player choice, really dynamic character development based on the player's actions and dialogue choices, tactical party-based gameplay with at least some diversity (4 playstyles, all of which are balanced quite well), and micromanaging for even more gameplay diversity?  It has perhaps more dialogue than any other game, and despite being story-driven it can easily last over 100 hours.  Nothing else comes close.  This is one of few examples of an AAA studio actually using its budget to improve and expand upon the game, opposed to just spending it on voice actors and marketing (so EA did a surprisingly good job budgeting).  It's not flawless or anything, but if other studios had the same scope then gaming would be in a much better place.
 
In terms of indie games, we got Wasteland 2, Divinity: Original Sin, The Walking Dead: Season Two, The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter.  All of these show innovation, creativity, while Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin demonstrate a scale/scope that we rarely ever see in indie games (both are 60+ hour RPGs, Wasteland 2 in particular can play out in so many different ways).  I could go into detail about how each of these titles are innovative and well executed if you want.  
 

rjohnson11
I like first person shooters and there is really not enough of those.

 
Sarcasm?  FPS is the most polluted genre. 
 

blacksapphire08
2014 was pretty meh but I think 2015 will be better with titles like The Witcher 3 and Just Cause 3 coming out. Fingers crossed.

I think those are two games responsible for donta's criticism (mostly the latter).  Just Cause 3 will just be another big open world game about destruction and meaningless violence, no?  Where is the innovation in that?  What's the purpose? 
 
The Witcher games have always been responsible for killing the RPG genre by taking away RPG elements and making the existing RPG elements extremely shallow.  They have shrunken scopes, little to no ambition, and no innovation, whether you like them or not.  Please point out ways in which the first two Witcher games are innovative.
 
The Witcher 2 just has the most basic hack and slash button mashing combat with only one playstyle, and although the writing is good, it doesn't demonstrate the kind of interactive plot and character development that story-driven RPGs are supposed to have (like Bioware, Obsidian, InXile, and Interplay/Black Isle RPGs).  Let's not forget how linear and generic the environments of the first two Witcher games are.  They're full of invisible walls, and just seem to be quickly thrown together by one person, not being carefully crafted with the attention to detail seen in other games.  The side quests of these games are the most basic, pointless fetch quests, so really the only thing to do is advance from point A to point B through the plot, and The Witcher 2 only branches out into two main paths really.
 
The Witcher 3 will at least be open world instead of extremely linear like its predecessors, but that just makes it another open world action game.  I do expect that the open world will at least be better than the likes of Just Cause 2, Just Cause 3, Far Cry 3, and Far Cry 4, since those games are just about playing in a sandbox, driving vehicles off of cliffs, and blowing things up.
 
All eyes should instead focus on Torment: Tides of Numenera, SOMA, and maybe Pillars of Eternity for 2015.  There isn't any innovation in Pillars of Eternity though, since it looks identical to a late 90s cRPG, but it should at least be competent, well-written, and diverse. 

boredgunner

cneuhauser
 
 
Wow...more man love for this guy and everything he said. BTW, I'm current playing, and addicted to Divinity Original Sin; this game takes a few hours to get into, but man does it deliver on so many levels. I didn't think I'd like the old style strategy play in combat, but it's actually made me a huge fan; now I'm not a fan of real time. The game is tough, a great story, and lots to do. I have Inquisition waiting in the wings while it's patched etc.

 
Yeah I'm waiting for patches too, specifically a walk button.  Divinity: Original Sin opened me up to turn-based gameplay as well, although pause-and-play is still my favorite.
 

EVGATech_DaveB
Agreed, if I want to play Temple of Elemental Evi, Daggerfall, Ultima Underworld, Return to Zork, I can just fire them up with some work, or spend 2-5$ on sale from gog.com and yes i do still enjoy those.  I can understand going old school for a reason, like a sequel to an RPG, continue the story and keep some of the old school feel, I get that, but otherwise, I would like to see more games (aside form the current trendy FPS) use the horsepower I have in my system, and have something that looks good as well as plays well.
I do dig the isometric 2.5D feel, but there are better options for it, I know it is outdated now too, but the game that pops into my mind for perspective is Warhammer 40k Dawn of War, it was a similar view, but could be pivoted to any angle you want as well as zoom control.
 
There have been some really great game releases, but I think the industry is so saturated with military shooters, or 90's sprite games that we seem to miss some of the good ones.  I have been in the Alpha, and have definitely enjoyed it, I am really looking forward to War for the Overworld, basically the spiritual successor to Dungeon Keeper and using a lot of the old dev team from it.  I keep meaning to check out Wasteland 2 just haven't gotten around to it.
 
I see both sides, Bored is right there are some wonderfully done games out there currently, but for those 50 games from the last 18 months on Steam that were really great, you have 150,000 that just sucked.

They could just do isometric 3D, since 2.5D is meant to emulate 3D anyway.  I like that Wasteland 2 is 3D and it's so disappointing that Torment: Tides of Numenera is going to be 2.5D, since it has spectacular art design.  Imagine those environments in 3D?
 
I actually think 2014 is one of the better years.  Focusing strictly on the good, we got Dragon Age: Inquisition which is the most ambitious single player game, two other great RPGs in Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin (which are like the classics but have improvements in scale and mechanics), The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead: Season Two which show serious advancements in the point-and-click adventure genre and also in character development, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Lost Alpha (but this could have been a lot better), and maybe others I haven't discovered yet (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter seems nice but I haven't played enough of it yet).  So that's 5 spectacular games, which might not seem like a lot but for my really picky tastes it is.  1998 and 2000 were the most stacked years but 2014 is still better than most other years to me.  I can't think of 5 spectacular games that came out in 1997 (Fallout?), 1999 (Planescape: Torment), 2001 (uhh... GTA 3 and Silent Hill 2? Not that I actually consider GTA 3 to be spectacular), 2002 (Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale 2 is probably good), 2003 (KOTOR, maybe TToE but I've barely played it), or 2004 (KOTOR 2, HL2).

peteo_85
We dind't have expectations back in the day. If we did they were so minimal. Look at the original mario compared to donky kong country for the SNES! it was night and day! it set the stage for "this can't get any better". Yet now days we complain about ports, AA, voice acting. So much to live up to. I don't think the games have gotten worse, I feel that the AAA developers have gone backwards doing pixel art to remind us what appealed to us way back when. We expect so much out of franchise titles that we chew them up ruthlessly that only a few stand out today. I can think of 10 NES, SNES, SEGA titles that were amazing!  

candle_86
 
Well there was alot more, but I'm gassing your not an FPS or big strategey player, because we got FarCry, Doom3, Rome Total War, Call of Duty ect during those years. I will say some games are good these days, but honestly I had alot more fun then, the games and this is subjective where just alot better. FarCry made my FX 5900XT cry and suck its thumb lol.

rjohnson11
One thing that bothers me is the lack of any really new game innovation. 

rsabatino
no matter what i just started building my arsenal of games thanks to steam and evga for supplying free codes with they're   products there will alway be one game i keep coming back to. its the first pc game i ever played it started me out in pc gaming even inspired me to build a pc in the first place freelancer. i must of played over 100 mods over the years swapped ideas with the freelancer community learned how to mod the game also. when ever i have a few extra hours it is always freelancer i turn too.

fubarhouse

rsabatino
no matter what i just started building my arsenal of games thanks to steam and evga for supplying free codes with they're   products there will alway be one game i keep coming back to. its the first pc game i ever played it started me out in pc gaming even inspired me to build a pc in the first place freelancer. i must of played over 100 mods over the years swapped ideas with the freelancer community learned how to mod the game also. when ever i have a few extra hours it is always freelancer i turn too.

Steam gives me security to not need any alternative. Digital licence owned for the lifetime of the account, download anytime anywhere. I've been building my collection which includes all the games from my childhood going back to Commander Keen. It's great to have them all centralised :) Much nicer interface and company than EA, and I just won't comment on Ubi's solution...

blacksapphire08

fubarhouse

rsabatino
no matter what i just started building my arsenal of games thanks to steam and evga for supplying free codes with they're   products there will alway be one game i keep coming back to. its the first pc game i ever played it started me out in pc gaming even inspired me to build a pc in the first place freelancer. i must of played over 100 mods over the years swapped ideas with the freelancer community learned how to mod the game also. when ever i have a few extra hours it is always freelancer i turn too.

Steam gives me security to not need any alternative. Digital licence owned for the lifetime of the account, download anytime anywhere. I've been building my collection which includes all the games from my childhood going back to Commander Keen. It's great to have them all centralised :) Much nicer interface and company than EA, and I just won't comment on Ubi's solution...

Please do, I hate UPlay as its one of the most restrictive forms of DRM ive ever seen. Ive never had any of their games work with the service. I always have to hack uplay to get my legally purchased games from Steam to work. Yes I have tried to send in a support ticket and they basically make it out that im a pirate because the key wont validate on their servers.

EVGATech_DaveB
 
 
I was given Wasteland 2 as a Steam gift for Christmas, that game I am having a LOT of fun with.  A good sign, I need to watch the clock so I don't randomly state  "ahh &*^%$$ when did it get dark?" which I did the first day I had it.
 
I will be engrossed there for a while, but I am looking forward to trying some of the others you mentioned as well, as I was watching them anyway. 
 
If you like a party RPG in a world that makes me think of FO and has some of the humor and sarcasm form BL (not a lot, but some) I think you will enjoy this, I know I am!

donta1979
I have noticed that most of the games this year just on the AAA area have been crap we probably had what 2-6 good game all around just on pc/console? Then the Indy devs not just this year but in general its like 99.99% of these indy devs are putting out crap, like something I would not be proud of, that is for PC/Console/Mobile... we have what maybe 10-20 exceptional indy games that are really amazing and done well. Then the rest are just face palm failures, like back in the day of Atari when these little studios basically stole other games did a copy and paste, renamed it, changed some colors and said tada we have game we are awesome we sure showed them! That led to the gaming industry in general taking a nose dive into almost full oblivion for a short time especially for consoles....  until Nintendo sparked gamers interest again saying see we care about creating a fun and cool game.
 
I just have seen all the games this year, lots of reading, and the steam discovery thing.... all I can say is these losers, armatures, are turning gaming into the next monster.com where you cannot see the good potential employee/product from the bad... if I was a student I would be proud of it, but these guys are putting their names on this stuff and selling it as a product, and a terrible product at that, nothing but copy paste clones, and honestly nothing to be proud of...
 
I just hold the standards high, have done my time in the AAA industry, put out quality mods for games on my spare time that are better done in modeling/texture quality than the original game they go into but I still make them look like they belong in that game and not from an alternate reality dimension.... It just amazes me most of these indy companies are just sad... honestly... no creativity, no innovation, no real pride in their work or craftsmanship... AAA industry suffers from that too, but the Indy world has upped the bar in that department of terrible looking, clone to a new level of unprofessional work of shenanigans...

candle_86
 
 
Fallout was made by the Original Wasteland team, so really Fallout is made in the memory of wasteland :P