what the hell is going on

Because the same problem has come up with other games that aren't EA Games I'd lean towards it being an XBOX Live Profile "authentication" that is somehow related to the latest DVD format that's being targeted for use in future platforms, just uneducated
speculation on my part, for what it's worth, try signing into XBOXLive AFTER the Main Menu appears, it works like a charm for Arkham City when the same problem came up in that game...

lol. i've seen that message before playing GOW3...i just turned off my console and re started it again.

and for the booting part. yea, earlier i played a match. right after wave one we lost a guy. then on wave 11 we got a new player. wierd

I've had the problem with the console freezing and forcing me to turn off / restart my console when I get killed in SP, or giving me the dirty disc error which is BS, my disc is spotless. It has been getting progressively worse (happening more and more frequently)
for me. I got that same message as you, OP, either last night or the night before, can't remember which but it was when playing SP. From what I've gleaned from other posts, it seems to be a problem with EA's servers (there's a big surprise) and something
about your profile being corrupted during syncing of data between the console and their servers. I guess they're supposed to be working on patching that as well, but don't really know much more than that.

Is this the gamertag you are trying to connect with?

I ask because you say you are still Gold, but the account you are posting with is not.

It looks like you are having a local network issue.

Try going to settings - system - network settings - select your network - configure network - go right to additional settings - and then select restore to factory defaults.

Then switch off the xbox and then your router for a minute. Turn the router back on and when the internet light is solid turn on the xbox and reconnect.

If the connection test runs fine and you get connected but you are still having an issues when signing into your account then go to settings - system - storage - select your hard drive - gamer profiles - select your gamertag and then select delete and then
delete profile only.

Then press the center button on your controller and then select download profile.

That should clear everything up;.