Jesus, people, have you never attempted to play an MMO-esque title with high population numbers? Even Halo Reach was chugging in the first days of the multiplayer beta / actual release due to player counts. GTAV is the fastest-selling anything in history. It's going to have trouble for a while. GAF gonna GAF. Regardless, I'll outline some stuff for people:
GTAO may deliberately lack a start menu to prevent any lockstep issues while paused. To change online settings, hit Start as a GTAV character and then go to the Online tab. From there, you can make any changes you might need from switching characters to selecting what kind of lobby you want to host. A variety of server options are available such as Friends Only, Crew Only, Go (quick launch), etc. All of the options are already available. While I personally couldn't get the race mission to load (I was playing at 6 CST), all of the server customization options are baked into GTAV's Start Menu to avoid losing them to the cloud.
The character creator is more flexible than it seems as long as you multitask. Rather than try to adjust the parent sliders to achieve a desired result immediately (and seemingly at random), try doing it in this order:
-Select your preferred gender.
-Keep hitting Randomize until you get a character relatively close to what you want.
-Adjust the customization options in the third tab. That is, age, hat / shades, hairstyles, etc.
-Once you're happy with your template, then you can go into the ancestry tab to adjust your heritage. Everything changes in real time, so keep an eye on your character as you move the sliders around to make subtle tweaks to jawline, skin tone, facial structure, etc. You can rotate and zoom in/out of your custom character while editing - and at least for the 360 version, it's pretty much identical to the camera options you have while editing your XBL Avatar.
-If you have a limited edition parent option (or John Marston), hit Y with your mother or father stats to toggle Special Mom/Dad (such as Niko or Misty) or Custom Mom/Dad (which relies on sliders.)
-Ethnic options are surprisingly diverse in the creator. Hitting Random a few times got me some very definitely Asian, Hispanic, etc. options. If you're shooting for a specific race, try and mix your grandparents' skin tone like you would mix paints, rather than shooting for realistic genealogy.
-Grandparent profiles largely influence race more than they do your actual physiology. No matter how fat your grandpa looks, you'll still have the body of an anorexic pop star.
-Once you're happy with your character, adjust the lifestyle sliders accordingly. They'll usually modify your hairstyle / outfit, but not your actual anatomy, so you'll want to double-check the third "style" tab and fix your hair / beard and all that.
It also bears repeating: the Character Creator uses some really low-res textures compared to your in-game GTAO model itself, which may be a Cloud issue.
That should about cover it. One last thing to keep in mind, though: time doesn't slow down when you change radio stations with the left DPad button in GTAO, so be careful if you try it at high speeds. I almost killed myself switching to Non-Stop-Pop flying through a busy intersection.
