Valve has kicked off their Steam Holiday Sale 2013, which will run all the way until January 3rd. As always, there are loads of great deals to find on the site, with headliners including the entire Bioshock trilogy for only 15 bucks and Dishonored for $7.50.

If you’ve never taken part in a Steam sale before, there are different kinds of discounts to watch out for. There are general discounts storewide (don’t buy these unless you have to), Daily Deals, Flash Sales, and Community’s Choice Sales. Daily Deals are, um, daily, while Flash and Community Sales change every 8 hours. If you’re eyeing a particular game, wait it out until it either becomes a Daily, Flash or Community deal — you’ll be looking at up to 75% or even 90% off in some cases, as opposed to a measly 30 or 50%.

However, there are also games that don’t become one of those special deals, so grab them at a general discount only if you have to. It would be best to wait it out until the last day for these, as you never know if they’ll be discounted for more before the end of the sale.

Finally, don’t hesitate to add games to your wishlist. While email notifications are notoriously unreliable (they’re supposed to alert you when there’s a big discount), your Steam wishlist is a great way to keep track of all the games you’re looking to buy, along with their respective prices and discounts.

Bonus tip: Pick up The Orange Box for 10 bucks if you don’t already own these games, it’s a great price for some of best games in recent memory. Skyrim for 15 bucks is also a startlingly low price for such a large game.

[via Steam]