I love True Crimes Streets Of LA. I have played through the GameCube version many times over. but I only went through the game with the upgrades cheat so far. and I got the average ending one time and all the rest of the times where I didn't use the all upgrades cheat I got all the poor endings.
I don't really like the missions either, I prefer only the driving missions where you can drive around and either fight crime or create death and destruction like on the Gran Theft Auto games, I only like to do the good things on that game today.
The point of True Crimes Streets of LA is to be the good cop and do good things. To earn points and use those earned points to complete mini games that you need to pass in order to reach the next upgrade.
the blue dumbbells, and the car, and the cursor icons are your upgrade locations on your radar.
You need to use the freeplay missions in order to get those needed points for those needed upgrades you also need to keep your character alive by going to the health cross locations on your radar,
Don't complete the story @dakooldood just try to get all the upgrades first on the missions like "driving for chow" and the others. because if once you get to the end of the game with 3 endings cut scenes it erases all your progress and you need to start over from scratch