I've played IL-2: Birds of Prey "through" (ie. completed the SP campaign & most of the SP missions) on X360.
If you're looking for a shoot'em up, play it on Arcade mode. Fun for a while, but only if you found it in a bargain bin.
If you're looking for a simulation on a console and try the Realistic or Simulation mode, even using a flightstick, it sucks balls. Don't even think of playing either of these modes with a joypad.
Why does BoP suck? Because the amount of the enemies and the way the missions are setup are balanced for the Arcade mode, where eg. a P-51 can outturn anything and all enemies die from a single shot. Add realistic physics, several FW190D's chasing you while you should be promptly killing lots of really tough ground targets, and it is not be so funny anymore. I won't even start on the end missions where you have to dogfight Me 262s with an IL-10. Also, more often than not your wingmen are only good for being ablative armour, and your tailgunner (if any) doesn't shoot anything, you have to fire the gun yourself - fortunately it has "magic bullets" even in Simulation mode that kill almost anything with a couple of shots.
Also, you can't play as Axis except in multiplayer. Last time I checked, the Axis planes even lacked cockpits. Also, the SP campaign is over very soon, even though the missions are ridiculously long and involve you killing dozens of targets. End titles speak about ten battles, what you get is six. SP missions are just gimmicks, and won't keep you occupied for long. The amount of planes is not that big and many "important" planes are missing or must be bought as DLC.
For PC users, the updated graphics would not be reason enough to buy (or even download) BoP/WoP, since everything else is worse in it. In the IL-2 proper you can ease the physics until it's almost as easy, but once you learn to fly it keeps fun even though you turn realistic features on. Plus the IL-2 proper offers much more gameplay out of the box (especially the 1946 collection) and it has almost unlimited free content available, which should keep you occupied until the Storm of War: Battle of Britain hits the shelves.
