Sounds like your videocard doesn't support a graphical feature used on the faces at the higher settings. It could be the normal maps, the specular maps, the ambient maps of the sweat.
Maybe you have some broken patches installed. Try reinstalling game.
Also updating drivers could help.
“We cut him off and there was nowhere for him to go but out of bounds … It’s still the greatest move I’ve ever seen in basketball, the all-time greatest.” -- Magic Johnson, on Julius Erving's layup from behind the basket in the 1980 NBA Finals