Texture compression, perfect use of generic assets, perfect allocation of memory budget (who gets what, where, when) great texture and geometry streaming engine (even though the dynamic streaming screws up sometimes).
Theres barely any video files, everything is rendered and presented in-game. There's not that many heavy post processes (screen-size transparent texture overlay) , DX9 API, low polycounts.
Yeah they did a great job.
I work on farcry3, we have a lot of similar restrictions and budgets (low amounts of memory on console, but you need First Person level of quality, and assets are rendered kilometers away, unlike corridor shooters), a lot of devs have respect for bethesda and their ability to fit everything in.
A lot of developers tend to focus on the micro (details here and there, texture is too low res, fix it, and so on). Bethesda has perfect control, and focuses on the macro. The game is gorgeous when played and viewed normally, its only when you focus at low poly rock formations or grainy ground textures that you see an issue. But it works, and everyone is happy. That's what other developers have a hard time grasping. Stop focusing on the smallest of details and look at the bigger picture.
Also goes without saying that Beth manages to make the world feel alive and beautiful with the DX9 API in 2011, whereas other devs would have rushed towards more efficient but heavier DX10 or DX11 solutions (for PC), thus requiring heavier types of textures, displacements maps and so on, making your install folder exponentially larger.
....I'm just gonna stick with magic. 
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