The Icon's have only ever appeared when saving. Baring in mind I'm playing the PS3 version. Before I turn the game off I always press Pause and then click Load to see what the most recent save is, and it's always been accurate for me

You don't get a save icon like every 30 seconds? Becuase the checkpoints are definitely not that often and I get save icons all the time.

I miss being able to save at spots right before certain scenes that I would want to view at any time or spots I would want to play through at any time.

Its kinda funny that I like Downpour's save system more than I thought. I have just gone back to Homecoming, and sometimes running back to the save points or searching for one you haven't found yet when you have to turn off the system is really frustrating. Sometiems its easier in Downpour when by a house or the theater to run inside, wait for it to save, and switch off there.

^ I like that, too, but I don't like that you can't keep saves that you like. Or can you? How many stay until the next one erases the last?

Just ordered the game for $15 off of amazon. Given all the problems I've heard I made a decision not to buy it at full price. WIll keep these save issues in mind. Even many autosave games like Portal 2 allow you to save when you want at the exact spot you want. So there's no excuses for this kind of bad design. Granted Portal 2 is not an open world game, but games like Skyrim apparently allow for this feature so leaving it out is just stupid. This is a game where progress matters and replaying stuff unnecessarily can be detrimental/frustrating to the experience.

Am (very) late to the party but ...

This is due to a rather simplistic translation error wherein the developers used the word "saving" when it should have been "loading".

The best way to ensure a save takes place is to await a cut-scene or an environment change (moving into a store/building etc.) Not ideal, but should help.