https://www.gamespot.com/articles/god-of-war-ps4s-director-on-how-working-with-mad-m/1100-6458220/

The new God of War for PlayStation 4 is launching soon, and early review scores suggest it's going to be a big hit, at least from a critical perspective. Critics are loving it, praising the game for being a bold step in a new and exciting direction for the series. It might surprise you to learn, but game director Cory Barlog has now said the game might not have been possible had it not been for the time he collaborated with Mad Max director George Miller.

In 2008, a year after Barlog initially left Sony, it was announced that he would collaborate with Miller on a new Mad Max game. This eventually fell apart, with Just Cause studio Avalanche instead releasing a Mad Max game in 2015 around the time that Miller's acclaimed Fury Road came out. Though Barlog's Mad Max ideas never came to fruition, the developer said his time with Miller shaped him as a creative person in significant ways. He says he didn't have a true understanding of what drama was before working with Miller.