Autosaves save game data. Hard saves save data and location. If it autosaves, and then you die, you respawn at your last hard save location, but with the autosave data. Also, if you are killed in a sidequest, it respawns you, not at the hostpital, like in GTA, but at your last hard save. This means that the quest is still out there, and you don't have to go back to the last save to try to find it again. I only realized this near the end of the game, when I kept spawning in a room a few hundred yards from the quest, and I was able to just walk out and try it again. IN GTA, the quest opportunity would be lost unless you reloaded the last autosave or hard save.

As for the weapon selection, once I got used to it I liked it a lot. I rarely switch weapon types mid-fight- I select the model of each type I want before I get into a fight, and that way even if I want to switch types I don't have to mess with the gun models, only the broad selections.