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Meaningful Multiple Choice (MC) responses are limited and can be biased unless worded extremely carefully.  This is THE reason ETS has a "test" or "experimental" section on almost all of their tests.  ETS has a group of psychometricians that ONLY study these experimental questions for any form of bias and rework them or trash them if the results are not perfect bell curves.

I have used MC questions to stimulate or guide an inquiry-driven unit or lesson.  The answers are short and I like the idea where there may be a 1st best and 2nd best answer.

Check out UbD, Understanding by Design.  UbD's premise is to design the lesson/unit backwards by asking a big question or thought that you want the students to truly understand at the end and then design towards that.

Also check out the 2009 Science PSSA grade 11 tests.  Some are multiple choice, but it is not simple spitting back facts.  Instead it provides a brief story with supporting graph(s), illustration(s), chart(s), etc.  It then asks MC questions that require the testee to critically think with the presented facts.  Some might call this scientific thinking or analytical thinking, but the answer is derived/synthesized from the presented information.  So the testee is required to discover/formulate the answer and this might be inquiry based, but that might be stretching it (well according to me).  :)