As PeterF, verifying the game cache may solve this. Steps:
1) Open Steam 2) Right click on Fallout: New Vegas 3) Hit Properties 4) Click the "Local Files" tab 5) Click on "Verify Integrity of Game Cache"
If that doesn't work, delete your ini files and repeat steps 1-5
this unfortunately did not work. i had previously tried what peterf said, and that didn't either. by ini files do you mean fallout_default, low, Very_high etc?