You can set the speed for the text in the options. And you can use F6 to pause the game while you read the mission description. And there’s another F-key (F8, maybe? Not entirely sure) that replays the last message you received.
What do you mean, you pick up stuff you don’t need? It doesn’t hurt either and you can’t pick up stuff you already have (for example, you can’t pick up more Ammo and only one Get out of Jail Free card and such).
Yeah, it’s a bit annoying that you can only try each mission once, but then again, playing a complete city including all missions takes about an hour. I think it’s intentional and not such a big deal. The game is probably designed to be replayed several times (it even gives you a high score list and all), and on the next time you play the level, you’ll do better. It’s not like in Mafia or the later GTAs where you’re playing a single campaign. It’s much more arcade-y.
I’m not even sure the viewing distance is the real problem. I think the cars are too jittery at high speed to evade other cars, even if you see them early enough.
It’s actually pretty easy to get to the 2,000,000 points: Just finish missions and don’t let the cops get you. Each successful mission gives you a +1 score multiplier, after four successful missions you already get 5 times the normal points for everything you do. The first 1,000,000 points are hard, everything beyond that goes really quick. You can also pick up a +1 in every level, I think. Getting killed doesn’t reduce your multipliers. Sometimes it’s better to let the cops kill you than to let them catch you.
And yes, the aiming thing is probably my biggest point of criticism. I just avoid gun fights completely, whenever possible.
