Well I picked up 2k9 yesterday, and overall I am impressed. The menu system is horribly hard to navigate as it has a really poor way of dividing all the options. The create-a-player option is buried so far into the menus that my friend who bought 2k9 on the release date couldn't find it and still hasn't found it after I told him to look for it.
The create-a-player function is very weird too. You can make a new player with all max skills in every category right off the bat. I don't understand how that is supposed to be fun. I figured there would be at least a little bit of player progression. Maybe there is, but it is just buried in the menu somewhere.
For someone new to the 2k series, I am impressed by the gameplay, but very very disappointed in the main menu system...
When I asked earlier about how many people you can play with online, I meant how many people can be playing from your console with other people. For example, if I have 3 friends over, can all 4 of us get into online play from my console? I will eventually test it out myself, but if someone knows off the top of their head that would help me avoid a few hours looking through all the settings in the menu!