With widescreen, you can get a better idea why this mission causes people problems...

With widescreen, you can get a better idea why this mission causes people problems. Too many players ride too close to the train, and Smoke's shots are blocked by the train. You have to ride an optimal distance away so he can get a clean shot.

I beat this mission in one attempt when I was like 12, there is absolutely no reason to struggle with this

I also don't remember having a hard time with it either.

you don't have to be a fucking genius to figure out that being closer to something obscures your view of its top

Fascinating. Hadn’t thought of that. Thank you for sharing user.

Same.
Played the game few years later and couldn't pass it for the life of me.

Why?
Well, because I remembered there's the oncoming train so I drove religiously in middle of the tracks so I didn't have to dodge.
Of course, that fucks up the fat fuck's aim and therefore the mission ...

Its not even hard, it became a meme and then people who never even played the game repeat it.

Or you can just kill the train driver first and then kill those guys.

a lot of 'difficult' things in games are really just old fucks who can't game anymore and therefore blame the game

I want to replay the GTAs, but holy hell does free-aim really make the games too easy. I'm thinking of intentionally using lower qualtiy weapons to try to balance it.