Here's the link to the PES 3 option file I've created :
https://www.pesgaming.com/index.php?threads/pc-ps2-pes-3-juventino-of.105881/#post-2232980

PES 6 is the GOAT.

To me, PES 2008 (PS2 version) is superior to the 6.
https://liberomagazine.wordpress.com/2019/12/02/the-lost-football-game-pes2008-review/

So, if you only consider the PC releases, you might be correct. For me, it's a tough choice between 5 and 6. I think I slightly prefer 5.

EDIT

I've also created option files for PES 6 (PC and PS2) and PES 2008 (PS2).
PES 6 : https://www.pesgaming.com/index.php?threads/juventino-of.48068/
PES 2008 : https://www.pesgaming.com/index.php?threads/juventino-of.54923/

2009 was nice too. First one to have the Be a Legend mode (if my memory doesn't fail me)

Fact

Adriano banging in from 35 yards

Correct.
It's also the first acceptable PES released in new gen (PS360).

There was a version where the player scored 3/4 shots if taken from the corner of the goalkeeper area (penalty area). I can't recall the version, may have to ask my brother about it but was definitely before 2008. On that same version was also very easy to score from the middle of the field, even right after kick off.

Edit: after 2 years, the football game king is still Nintendo World Cup.

There was also Soccer Shootout on SNES, where, if playing indoor and shoot exactly when on the middle line, you were almost certian to score.

Shoutout to FIFA 14 where scoring from the half-line wasn't even hard due to the clunky perk system

What licenses? LOL

What about sensible soccer series? Very funny games ^_^

Meh, i don't care for sports games...

But getting back into PS2 games, has gotten me to once again really appreciate the system in general, and wishing more games to still be made for it.

Same for the Dreamcast and Sega Saturn. So many systems that weren't utilized nearly as well as they could have been, and cut early.

Nintendo World Cup is that NES Kunio-kun soccer game that got localized as a more general world cup game right? I loved it back when I played it (probably the late 1990s or early 2000s), but it was hardly a normal football game. :P I mean, you could kill enemy players and they'd stay dead in the field for the rest of the match. :P

About the subject of the thread, I was somewhat fond of the SNES International Superstar Soccer games, but I was never too much into sports games, so I basically skipped everything from the end of the 1990s and forward. I did try my hand at a FIFA 13 demo and a PES demo a few years ago on STEAM, but I lost interest pretty quickly.

I also have some memories of the FIFA 98 World Cup game, but they can, pretty much, be summed up by "Right about now, the funk soul brother" XD

That's the one, the epithome of a fun game. When I played it with my brother, usually the game ended in 1v1 or 1v2 situation with a gravyard of KO'd players. It has some interesing mechanics even if it looks very simple on the surface.
It's the first football game I know of that try to be fun with it's own formula and not a "simulation" of football.
I believe FatBoySlim music is the main theme of some PES game, can't remember wich.
Anyway, thanks for putting the music in my head for the next few hours...

It was FIFA 99 I think.