ODE is used in softimage, xbox games and more... and you have the gall dismiss it out of hand? :)
Well I'm not dismissing it... but it is slow. In fact the biggest problem ODE has is stack overflows from recursive contacts (though this can be capped) and common explodes and speed when handling too many.
I'm still considering ODE and I think it would be most suitable at the moment.
Note in my line of work we don't actually use ODE or other toolkits for our PS2 and XBox titles. We mostly use the cheap and nasty spring forces approach. I know ODE is being used in BloodRayne but they won't using too much of ODE guaranteed, current gen machine just can't do rigid body physics on too many entities with enough precision and then also have time to render pretty graphics. Next Gen machine like the XBOX3 and PS3 are a different matter.
So yes I'm considering ODE at the moment anyway. Simply because I have access to the source and I've used it before. But novodex would be nice because IT IS industry grade and game friendly.
Tommy.