Click image for larger version  Name:	image_16387.jpg Views:	2 Size:	255.3 KB ID:	3492002It's that joyous time of the year again. The time where you can spend a lot of money on yourself and retreat into a shell of isolation as you play game after game that you picked up during the latest Steam Winter Sale. It's probably a good thing then that the 2018 Steam Winter Sale is finally here.

In addition to saving all kinds of money, Valve is also going to give you some digital goodies when you check out their "Extremely Cozy Cottage of Surprises." Sure, it sounds ominous, but I'm guessing it's nothing to worry about.

Beyond all of this, you can cast your vote for the best games of the year. You can cast your votes over at the 2018 Steam Awards, or don't, I'm not your boss. The winners will be announced in February 2019.

This is Steam's 12th annual Winter Sale. Each year the event has drawn a ton of traffic to the store, with last year's sale attracting billions of page views for Steam's titles from users all around the globe.

This year's sale features an "Extremely Cozy Cottage of Surprises" theme, each day offering players the chance to open a new door and receive unique Steam Community emoticons, wallpapers and/or in-game items from community favorite Steam games -- as well as some consumable digital items of questionable utility from Valve.

Along with daily surprises and discounts on thousands of games, players can vote for their favorite games and studios of the year in the Steam Awards. The winning games and studios are targeted to be announced in early February 2019.