Regarding the MP....I remember reading an EGM MP preview a month or 2 back. IN this preview i found it VERY disturbing that they said while they were there, they could only get the smaller groups (4-8 players i think it was) to work right. Even if the interview and preview took place 2 or 3 months before the article was published that should have been at least seen as potentially problematic.
I remember htinking to myself, wow why don't they seem to have any concern about this? I know that previewers often dont like to talk to much about those types of issues as they could and often are ironed out before the final build. BUT there are also PLENTY of instances where games are shipped before they are ready.
I think R* was under alot of pressure to release this game when they did. They dont seem to keen to be bought by EA. If another big delay was anounced, I can imagine that "hostile takeover" going down quite a bit differently.
For a game like GTAIV there comes a point where they can be pretty confident the game will sell big, and they know they can always patch the game later.
Only time will tell whether the online will be "fixed" completely, but truth be tiold I would have bought the game without online, so the fact that i can fuck around the wolrd with multiple friends is cool enough hwere im not going to be to upset.