Maybe it just my video card but I was walking to NV at dusk when the lights came on , or at least got much brighter.......It looked like the start of the war all over again. The lucky 38 looked like a mushroom cloud....big flare of light...try it some time. The cemetary might be a good spot. Great view there anyway, like the first view of DC you get in FO3.

Hit the print screen button the next time, and give us a preview.

I dont think a static image would do it justice, You have to see it as it changes from the day to the night sky...

Isn't the effect you're talking about the city lights themselves? I.E. cities "glow" at night from the combined refractions of all their light sources. I don't remember ever seeing this in FALLOUT3 - which would make sense as DC didn't have a stable power grid, unlike Vegas. In fact, NEW VEGAS is one of the only games I can think of where electrical appliances and light sources make sense: you can see the wires leading up to batteries.

(I've never understood how it was possible for torches to be lit in dungeons. Is there a league of lamplighters in every pseudo-medieval world out there? If so, they *really* get around and deserve some serious props!

Well at times when I look at NV (on xbox 360) the lights just suddenly turn off as if the city has just had a blackout

yeah, i noticed that - on PC, suddenly the lights flimmered.

About the blackouts, remember when you're assigning power from Helios? If you do it the way the Followers want, you'll see a little warning at the bottom saying that the power is not enough to supply the area and that frequent blackouts are to be expected. I've never sent the power just to Vegas Strip, but i've selected the option before, and it doesn't give the same warning. Maybe that's why - if it is, that's a nice level of depth that the developers added to it. You get to actually see what your actions did to alter the game universe, instead of hear it from some guy on a radio station!