Favourite Hitman game?

I played the first four games back when each were new-ish but the one I played the most back-in-the-day, and got the most all around fun out of, was Hitman Contracts (2004) which is the 3rd game of the series. I never finished the 5th game (i.e. Hitman Absolution (2012)) and only briefly played Hitman (2016)(the 6th game) and currently they have Hitman 2 (2018) which is the 7th game of the series.

I don't have interest in the series like I once did. I played them all on PC which shooter games are best suited for due to the mouse superiority at aiming as it simply takes less time to get your crosshairs on the target vs a analog stick which, the analog stick, is a big problem for me on consoles for shooter types of games as it's a chore to aim with it and ruins the games.

NOTE: I still have Hitman Blood Money (2006) (on PC) in mint condition in it's case etc.

but anyways... I think the first Hitman: Codename 47 (2000) game was fairly unique in it's general feel even though I am sure it would be pretty dated by today's standards (but it was good in it's day). it seems many like to praise Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002) quite a bit but I see Hitman Contracts(Hitman 3) as a more polished version of Hitman 2 as I sort of see Hitman Contracts as the last game of the earlier days and sort of see Blood Money (2006) as a in-between the old days and today's games.

p.s. I wish they would make a proper Hitman movie though as the two we have so far (i.e. Hitman (2007)/Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)) are just basic action movies (for the record... I mildly like the 2007 movie but do not like the 2015 movie) but what they need to do is do something in the style of The American (2010) (within my Top 21 movies in general) but tweaked a bit to suit the 47 character as I think if done right could output a quality movie. basically The American (2010) is more of a character study that's all about atmosphere with a bit of action which is what they should have done instead of out to make a quick buck and turn it into a basic action movie like we got in 2007 and 2015.