Nothing really changed. Are you sure that you didn't select roto bezier when the path was created? The other thing that could be going on is that you have created a shape layer with the rectangle tool and you have a rectangle instead of a path. Without further explanation it's going to be hard to figure out what is going wrong.
Press G to bring up the pen tool. Hold down the Alt/Option key to change the pen tool to the convert vertex tool (little sideways V). Press the G key again to bring up the Feather tool if you are working on a mask. Press the V key to bring up the direct selection tool to select vertices or shape paths. Hold down the Command/Ctrl key with a shape path selected to duplicate it (a black and a white arrow head appears) to duplicate the path when you click and drag. With any vertex selected click and drag on the layer to select multiple vertices....