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George Miller Criticizes 2015's Mad Max Game, Developer Responds With Heated Messages

Plus, Miller suggests that Hideo Kojima should make a Mad Max game.

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Mad Max director George Miller wants Metal Gear designer Hideo Kojima to make a Mad Max game, and he also sounded off on 2015's Mad Max game and why he didn't love it.

Speaking to Gaming Bible, the Australian filmmaker said Kojima would be a top choice of his to make a Mad Max game, though he said he "would never ask him" because Kojima already has so much "fantastic stuff in his own head" that keeps him busy.

Miller also spoke candidly about 2015's Mad Max game from Just Cause studio Avalanche. He said plainly, "It wasn't as good as I wanted it to be." Upon reflection after that game came out, Miller said, "I'm one of those people that I'd rather not do something unless you can do it at the highest level."

2015's Mad Max was a tie-in of sorts with Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, and Miller said his team gave "all our material" to Avalanche to make the game. GameSpot's Mad Max review scored the game a 6/10. Reviewer Peter Brown said, "Mad Max is too focused on providing you with an open-world that's filled with missions, and not focused enough on making those missions worth your time."

Former Avalanche boss Christofer Sundberg reacted to Miller's comments on social media. He said the game suffered from releasing at a "terrible" time, and his efforts to convince Warner Bros. to move the date were not successful. The game released on the same day as Metal Gear Solid V, and Sundberg reflected that Warner Bros. "blamed us for the bad sales" and canceled DLC for the game that was "just sitting there waiting to be released."

Sundberg added that Avalanche pitched an open-world Mad Max game but was forced to convert the experience to be more linear in structure.

"We threw away a year of work and got to hear that 'players want autonomy in this day and age.' Well, no shit," he said. "I'm sure Hideo Kojima would make an awesome Mad Max game, but it would be a completely different experience."

In other Mad Max news, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga comes to theaters on May 24. It stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa and is a prequel set before the events of Fury Road.

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gunnyninja

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"I'm one of those people that I'd rather not do something unless you can do it at the highest level."

Then why do you keep making the same movie over and over? How many car chases in the desert can you dream up? That game is way more entertaining than Thunderdome.

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deactivated-66fd6087c3e14

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"I'm one of those people that I'd rather not do something unless you can do it at the highest level."...lies. Furiosa is garbage. Regret I spent my time and money on it. George you're old, time to retire.

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darth_zaramoth

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While the game had its flaws, especially the segments where you had to do story stuff on foot, I still enjoyed it a lot back then. It was much better than I expected for a movie-license game. The atmosphere, vehicle combat, vehicle upgrades and simply driving around was awesome. I wish they made another one and just improve the walking around elements.

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mrbojangles25

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Edited By mrbojangles25

I actually sort of liked the Mad Max video game. Captured the spirit of the films quite well and had a decent story to it. Gameplay was good, too.

A shame that was sort of when the developer went downhill; Just Cause 4 was a bit of a shitshow, Rage 2 was underwhelming (but not terrible, mind you), and while Generation Zero was released in a poor state it sort of turned into an OK game that isn't that popular.

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OpenMind23

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One of my favourite vehicular open-world games. I would be happy if they remastered it in the future I liked it so much.

On the flip side, it would be interesting if they made a new one as well. But I need my open-world to stay :)

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ID0ntKn0w7

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I played it and it was boring as hell

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santinegrete

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Game has good references if you ask gamers. It has good playerbase scoring too.

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brxricano

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Oh please i liked it. It was actually good for a game that wb just said, eh, we have one. Play it if you want. Its really good.

I dont want a kojima version. I dont want to know how if his jacket is double stitched. Or who the manufacturer of the db shotgun is. Or to be told that its not a mustang but a mustang salene. And then be told its not a mustang at all. And then be told he has no gel in his hair. Only to then be told, well idk why hes mad, guess well never know.

And then be stuck finding parts to put together a car ill never drive because that would be tooo much fun.

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uninspiredcup

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I preferred the game over Fury Road.

Too much grind though, bloated.

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dmdcsm

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Mad Max the game was/is way better than his newest movie Furiousa. As Immortan Joe would say “Mediocre!!”

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StickEmUp

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As far as film-licensed games go, I’ve played worse. However, no way in Hell should Kojima do one. I loved Metal Gear Solid 1-4 and now I could go the rest of my life without ever playing another one of his games. I’ve said this more times than I can remember, but the guy is a one-trick-pony. He’s the M. Night Shyamalan of video games. He just makes things convoluted and confusing for the sake of being convoluted and confusing. Then he tells people they “just don’t get it” if they don’t like it. It’s the Apple of responses:

“You don’t have service? You’re holding the phone wrong.” -Apple

He believes his own myth. I will never join the Cult of Kojima.

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SneakyWolfNY

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ah WB. The same corporate geniuses whose visionary guiding hand helped game devs give us a MK1 and Suicide Squad that were runaway hits.

Keep up the great work guys, success is just around the corner! Don’t give up now!

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deactivated-67d9b4d176198

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I don't get the hero worship that Kojima enjoys. With every game he makes it seems like he is just trying to push the boundaries of plausability. The MGS universe was never grounded in reality but it just got more ridiculous with each instalment. The last straw for me was the Phantom Pain which I enjoyed up until I was chased by a guy riding a flying horse on fire. Pure and utter nonsense. Death Stranding was good in terms of the universe and was an interesting concept but it just didn't have the gameplay to back it up.

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JimG81

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@just_visiting: Couldnt agree more. I watched the trailer for Death Stranding and wondered whether he or I had taken drugs.

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brxricano

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@just_visiting: bro i dare you to play it again just to realize that ocelot is begging you to go back to those glory days of being a terrorist 😂

"Man those were the good ol days we should do some base building and recondition people to fight in our forced army heres a ballon champ!" 😂😂😂😂

That cutscene skulls me every time 💀💀💀

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davidb50100

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@just_visiting: I don't get it either. I stopped playing the Phantom Pain pretty much right away.. capturing people with balloons seemed so ridiculous to me.

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Anonymous1313

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Warner Brothers has the reverse Midas effect. Everything they touch turns to crap.

I wish the executive board at WB would all fall to the bottom of the ocean they have no idea how to make decent material anymore.

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faithxvoid

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Damn Miller is going pretty hard in the paint...not every piece of art can be a masterpiece like Babe- A Pig in the City, George...

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xNSHD

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In response to miller's suggestion. Please just no.

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brxricano

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@xnshd: but but....i wanna see credits roll at the END OF EVERY FREAKING MISSION 🥺🥺🥺😑

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deactivated-680a5fa8cce7a

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@xnshd: yes, death to hideo kojima and modern sony games!!! cannot play a game among programs force you to watch cutscenes anymore in the skin of fake "video games". dude I just wanna do stuff I don't wanna do IRL lol

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VatususReturns

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@guitarwarrior66: yeah, death to the games I dont like... or, hear me out, or just, ya kno, dont buy them and let other that do enjoy them? Crazy concept, I know, but it could work out

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deactivated-680a5fa8cce7a

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@vatususreturns: but I'm no saint so I plan to buy these companies and destroy them or force them to develop decent games :DDD

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ItsNotA2Mer

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The Mad Max game was a lot of fun. And yes, I would play another one. And yes, I would definitely love it if Kojima made it.

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Clubhouse

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Best free game I finished from the old plus system. It wasn't the best but the driving was good, story was good enough for a lots of things to find on the map sort of game, and it felt like the mad max world.

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Ember_to_Flame

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I thought that game was great, nice platinum.

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mogan

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mogan  Moderator

Yeah, that game was pretty middling. Shame it got screwed over by the publisher.

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fbplayer1086

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Game was fine. It's basically the definition of generic open world collectathon

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maltnut

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Edited By maltnut

Why the **** was there DLC sitting there waiting to go at launch instead of being incorporated into the fucking game? Maybe make the entire fucking game before you put it up for sale instead of selling us the rest of the game piecemeal later?

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Avatar image for deactivated-680a5fa8cce7a
deactivated-680a5fa8cce7a

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@maltnut: Warner Bros suck at business regarding video games which for lots of reasons I stopped buying their games. they even ruined mortal kombat franchise lol

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swantn5

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@guitarwarrior66: well in all honesty thats the gaming business in general not just WB

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deactivated-680a5fa8cce7a

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@swantn5: true. no wonder when they just wanna develop a movie in skin of "video game" anymore lol

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MafiaBear

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@maltnut: it wasn't ready to go at launch. Titles don't just get finished and released the next day... That's why we have day 1 patches.

The game was finished, went gold, and in the months leading up to the release (during the print and press run for the game) work began on the DLC (common practice)

This article states the DLC was cut due to poor sales, which could well have meant that after 3 months release, they finished the DLC but were told to can it in month 4.

You're right to be angry about the practice you think they did, but they probably didnt in this situation. They were fucked over by the studio, who as it even says in this article, wouldn't let them change release date and made them scrap a year's worth of work to change the style from what was first made... Which would probably be why DLC was easy to make too, just take cut content and tweak it

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davidb50100

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The Mad Max game was really good. The open world was amazing and the game was fun all around.

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Dushness

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mad max game is frequently just $5. more games should copy it

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Alienbishop

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What a cheap, clickbait title, it is making it look like developer responded with hatred towards George Miller. As for G.Miller not liking the game, i don't think he is not a gamer and his opinion is based only on game scoring 6/10, which in turn is another critic bullshit, the game is AMAZING, i played it through for two times in a row.

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PCPS4XB

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@alienbishop: I was left pleased when I was finished. And after reading this article, I might give it another go on my ROG Ally which should run it pretty sweet at this point.

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