Hello forumners! My friends and I are desperately looking for a break from the tedium of MW2, and I suggested BF2 without knowing much about it. How does the multiplayer function with it? Keep in mind we'd be grabbing it for the X360 (they're not PCers like me, and we don't have enough PS3 controller), and it'd be mostly splitscreen. How does it compare to MW2's? What's different that we should expect?

I don't think splitscreen is an option for starters

There is no Split-Screen, sorry. 
But the game's multiplayer is fantastic, top notch from every perspective. It's very different to Modern Warfare 2, so be aware. It's slower paced, more class-dependent, and more tactical. 

I couldn't help but read the thread title in that Jeff Euro Journalist voice.

no split scree dude, however vastly different and better :)

The biggest differences are in the way that spawning happens, the loadouts and in the gamemodes.

You and your friends will be able to create your own 4-player "squads" in MP, where you can spawn on any living player if you die and get more XP for helping/working with your squadmates.

The perk situation from COD is somewhat there, although you earn the perks separately for each of four player classes, plus a few "all class" weapons and items.

BF:BC2 has fewer gamemodes. Conquest is like a larger scale Domination. Rush is like Demolition with eight targets, accessible two at a time (gotta destroy the first two targets before the next two will unlock). Squad Deathmatch is Team Deathmatch, but 4x4x4x4. There's a co-op mode called Onslaught which is basically Conquest vs. AI, and that's about it.

Never played any of it splitscreen, so YMMV. Hope that helps.

EDIT: Oops, looks like I take too long to type. Apparently no splitscreen so you may be out of luck.

@Gladiator_Games: That's a shame. The squads and choosing different classes based on situation (lots of tanks coming at you? switch to engineer, etc.) really keep things interesting from game to game.