Alright, the game works fine, the issue is the game itself has issues detecting newer graphics cards. I couldn't find a solution online so I spent some time experimenting with the available commands.
I managed to get it to work, here's what I did:
First install the game and the provided nosteam patch, then install the 1.1.3.0 patch (since I can't post links, just search "episodes from liberty city patch 1.1.3.0" the link is in the gtaforums and the download is official).
Now comes the tweaking, go to the shortcut and open properties. Add the command "-availablevidmem 6000.0", that will tell the game it has 6gb to work with, you can try a higher value, but the game won't
really reach the limit when adjusting the settings. If you listen to Youtubers who say to assign a value from 1 to 20, when you start the game it will think your GPU only has like 20mb of memory, which is ridiculous.
Now add in a resolution vie the commands "-width -height", I'm running in 4k so my commands look like this "-width 3840 -height 2160".
Now the most important part is for you to add the command "-windowed", or else the game won't even start. Apply the changes and start the game.
If you're trying to downscale from a higher resolution, for instance me running the game at 4k on a 1080p monitor (for anti aliasing), the game won't render the full window, to fix that so you can enter the options menu,
go and download a Fullscreenizer program ( sorry can't post links), run it and select the game to make it fit your screen.
Now go to the options menu and set the settings to however you want them to be, the resolution you should change to how it is assigned in the startup commands (it is important for both the in game resolution settings
and startup resolution to be present and the same or else the image won't render properly).
When you're done tweaking, exit the game, go to the shortcut and remove the "-windowed" command, now when you run the game it should start in full screen at the proper resolution with the proper settings, you can continue to tweak the settings however you wish but I'd advise against touching the resolution as it might screw things up.
This worked for me, I just finished a few missions on the Ballad of gay tony and The lost and damned, if this works for you and you see someone struggling, share the info.