NBA 2k12 is what NBA 2k11 professed to be. That said, it's not what everyone claimed 2k12 WOULD be.
Online is still shaky. This happens with every new game, but usually it's improved. 2k doesn't improve as fast or as great as other companies, but it does usually even out.
The graphics are a bit smoother. Players look better. Ironically, the graphics are beginning to be on par with what NBA Live 10 had. This is my point. EA gets bashed, but in reality, they were ahead of 2k sports in a lot of ways. Not gameplay-wise, but graphics, and animationally, they were pretty far ahead. It's saying something that it takes 2k 2 years with NO competition from EA to equal the same quality in certain areas.
The animations in 2k12 are better than ever. The ball physics are better than ever. You can get the ball knocked loose by pressing turbo too soon and bounce the ball into someone's foot. Great. The net finally looks realistic when the ball goes through it. Players finish at the rim a LOT smoother. This is HUGE. I noticed it right away. Wow, major props there.
The control scheme is a bit difficult to adjust to. If you practice a bit, you will get it. Ironically, they're getting closer to the total control scheme that NBA Elite 11 was going to use, with more realistic and fluid layups and dunks. Now, you press RS left/right to layup that direction, and the triggers are the modifiers. Again, funny because people LOVE this, but it was introduced in Elite, and 2k had 2 years to develop this idea.
There are still weird warping issues. There is still clipping. There is weird foul calls because the physics engine is half animations, half true physics. It's mainly just inconsistent. It could be tweaked, but probably not until next year. Don't know if it's patchable.
The old school NBA thing is cool I guess - but I am not too into that. I like the gameplay first, features next.
That said, they improved and added things to My Player. It borrows dynamic goals from the EA NHL title this year (another thing an EA studio had first). The crowd still looks terrible. There is a major quality difference between the cheerleaders and crowd versus the players, which is fine, but then the cutscenes showing terrible low-res models is kind of silly. The coaches look a lot better, though.
Pretty solid framerate. Only noticed a few issues. The new defensive system is weird. It's much harder to play defense now...not sure if I like this - because it was already a huge advantage to play offense in the 2k series. The fouls are a bit more realistic though...just like in 2k11 before the patches. Hopefully, unlike 2k11, they don't patch in a huge amount of missed foul calls. A few months after 2k11 came out - they reduced the fouls so much that it was playing like Live 10 was...with players colliding midair in the key and nothing called. This still happens in 2k12, but it's not so glaring.
Overall, I like it. But, they didn't really improve the AI to the level they claimed. The animations are still sticky. It was a bit overhyped, but it's still one of the best ones in the series.