Using physic system for avatar control?

Whats your guys views on using something like ode for avatar control.
My game has my own control system over avatars but i was thinking of moving it to ode.
This would allow me to have physics without having to code them but what kind of problems is there? ie collisions, moving up slopes etc

Is anyone using a physics system for control of their entities? Have you found benefits?

I'm planning to do it but not using a pre-existing physics library. Then you can let the character react well to the environment, but this is not always desirable if you want it to animate in ways that defy physics.

Do you guys know of any games at all that use this? The only game I can think of is Trespasser.
I was(and am) all for it. It made throwing things at pursuing raptors very fun to watch.
They'd stumble and realistically try to keep balance. Very impressive for 1997.

Physics-based animation for avatars is the future. Period. Currently though, developers
seem too afraid to use physics on anything except dead bodies. Trespasser's rampant bugginess
must've scared 'em.

I meant more along the lines where your character has a rigid body for movement etc and when you move around the world anything physics based will react to the rigid body.
The user overwrites any physics applied to the character from stuff like balls/boxes collding with it etc.

not too far off...

http://www.naturalmotion.com/euphoria.htm

Thanks for the link. Have you guys read this?: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/705/705489p1.html

This is the right idea! Screw pixelshaders. I'm sick of 'em. The industry needs to focus
more on procedural animation and AI. Now THERE's a largely untapped area in games technology.
It's an area that I think everyone could agree - makes games more fun.

Read the article if you don't know what I mean.

Check out the new game RoboBlitz on Steam, all physics based - including main character.

I think it could be a good thing if used well and if it doesn't make the avatar boring or too restrained, and many people desire larger-than-life fantasy characters which will not comply with physics. But I suppose less important `enemies` etc could be done with physics to react and to move using joines and hinges and springs etc.

Don't forget that this is a game, here. You can bend and break the laws of games physics anytime you want. It's all up to the designers.