They're not absurd if you consider everything else that's currently available. Sure, comparing it to some perfect game from 10 years ago the scores might be too high, but comparing to the current sea of crap they're pretty reasonable. And of course there's the well know phenomenon of review score inflation. On a 5 point scale, an average game is 3, but on a 10 point scale, it's 7. Also disliking Oblivion is mostly personal preference, it's a solid 8.4 on the quality scale. Just look at the level of detail and compare it to almost any other game.