* There is a feeling of "perpetual crunch". Lots and lots of milestones with fancy names. Each one is treated like it's the most important milestone ever. Except it's not, and when one is over, it's on to the next one that is coming up in a month's time.
* Very muddy vision. The higher ups probably know what they want, but it is communicated very poorly to the staff.
* Management works late, and think that others follow their schedule too. No, we don't. People have lives. Don't dump work on us an hour before the end-of-day.
* Chaotic production pipeline. Changes are often made on things that you thought were already done, resulting in old work being scrapped. This can be very demoralizing.
* Rockstar likes to focus on one game at a time. That means if you're working on a project that's not coming out soon, it is left to meander aimlessly for 2 to 3 years. When whatever other focus game is released, attention will finally be brought to your project.
* Work environment can sometimes be too casual. You can disappear for a 1 hour smoke break and no one would care. Very rarely do people get called for it, and bad habits are left to grow worse.
* New York controls everything. If they want something changed, you have to do it. Decisions made by local management will get overruled. Something that was approved by your boss 6 months ago will all of a sudden have to be redone because of New York.
* Multiple bosses on one project. Too many cooks in the kitchen with clashing opinions, resulting in work having be redone over and over again.
* The game engine is buggy, and lots of things can and do go wrong. When they do, it can tack on 2 or 3 extra hours to your workday.