Ok, I've never played the game, and when i check the IGN website it says 1 - 24 players. Is there a 4 way local mulitiplayer?

It says on the back of the box that it's for 1-4 players, so I'm guessing yes. You can also do a "system link" for 2-24 players. I know for sure 2 people can play split screen locally. I haven't had an opportunity to try it with 4. I'm actually trying to get a local system link tourny set up, but there's not a lot of COD fans in my area.

Im pretty sure 4 players can do split screen and play online against upto 20 odd more on Live

Yes, COD3 in 4 player split screen, and up to 4 players using guest feature just like halo2/3.