I'm not sure I really got what you're referring to but IIRC even by default GTA 3 was always set to regular WASD + mouse controls. It's certainly how I played the game. O_o

The save systems, mostly. It's funny, because when I'm playing a console game, I don't mind console save systems, as long as they're not terribly implemented. For example, playing Persona 3 it doesn't bother me at all that I can't save anywhere I want; but then I tried to play Bard's Tale on the PC, and I felt like, "Save points? What the heck is this nonsense?"

I realize that it's difficult for the developers, because they already had to keep the save system in mind when they were balancing the game, and changing it would probably involve a lot of work. But psychologically, I want my PC games to act like PC games.

(And fair's fair, Bard's Tale ended up having so many savepoints that it didn't hurt the experience at all. But it was a bit of a culture shock at first).

In Vice City, with 'standard' controls if you push left and right (a and d) the main character keeps facing forward and side steps left and right, if you push back (s) he steps backwards
If you go for 'Classic' controls he turns to face the direction you push in and can autoaim

In GTA 3 you were stuck with classic mode, which affacted aiming because you couldn't strafe and the autoaim didn't even work as well as VC either

IIRC anyway - I may have to re-install GTA just to check that I ever got it set up quite right now, unless anyone else can confirm I'm not dreaming...

I played it on PC and PlayStation 2, and it's hands-down better on PC. You can just shoot where you want to shoot instead of having to go through that awkward aiming system that the PS version has, the better res and frame rate make the game look and feel better and make driving much easier, plus there's a much better view distance on PC (this makes a huge difference) and you don't have cars spawning right in front of you.

Its weird when you can see futher than the spawn point though - I was doing a kill frenzy (I still insist on calling them that) from the room of the airport terminal - had to destroy cars with the rocket launcher and cars where just appearing in the middle of the runway moving right a bit and up a bit then dissappearing again!

But yeah, probably better than the PS2 still!

It's been said a few times, but, yeah, checkpoints. I *hate* them. I also despise the current trend of console games to not have any cheats. Most PC ports that I've played end up having them in some way though.

It really struck me last night playing a couple games on my PS3, one which required me to return to a certain spot to save my game (sometimes a long way to travel) and another (XCOM Enemy Unknown) which allows me to save at any point, including mid-battle.

Of course, I probably feel this way simply because I have so little skill and am a generally lousy game player. But, heck, there are a lot of us out there, so I don't feel too bad.

Tha aiming system was worse on GTA 3 PS2 I was happy getting the M16 and Sniper Rifles in the game. Vice City was a HUUUUGE improvement, making it tighter and clear, but it made the game too easy when it comes to fighting.

Actually GTA 3 is the same as VC in this respect. It also has the "standard" and "classic" modes and "standard" is the one with A and D for strafing and free mouse look. I even just checked to make sure.

Edit: Attached a screenshot of the options menu. Yes, the Steam version is v1.1 but I'm 99.99% positive it was the same in version 1.0 since I remember always playing GTA 3 this way.

OK it was just me playing GTA 3 then, turns out - D'OH!

You better install the game right away and enjoy it like you've never enjoyed it before!

I actually managed to complete it like that and I've got VC to finish and then SA after that, don't think I did completed a single kill frenzy on GTA 3 playing it like that!

I just wish there was a mod to play GTA 1 with modern design sensibilities - saving, multiple goes at missions etc. I'd give that another go!

Maybe there is. Speaking of mods, just minutes ago I discovered this mod:
GTA3 XBOX Version Mod

Seems the PC version is based on the PS2 version while the Xbox version is much much prettier so some modder created a mod which replaces all the assets of the PC version with the Xbox ones. It's amazing what kind of stuff the modding community is able to pull off. So who knows, maybe there's also a mod which does the stuff you want.

In my opinion, what makes a poor console port is a poorly optimized game where the cpu is going crazy and there's graphical anomalies everywhere.