Valve kicked off its 2016 Steam Summer Sale this afternoon with discounts on games like Doom, Grand Theft Auto V, Fallout 4 and Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Gamers have been looking forward to this year's Steam Summer Sale for a while now thanks to a leak of the sale dates on Reddit and elsewhere. Now, the wait is finally over, as Steam's annual summer sale kicked off at 1 p.m. ET today and will run until 1 p.m. ET on July 4. In addition to the big deals, gamers will also have an opportunity to earn a new set of badges and Steam trading cards themed around the sale.

Valve has dubbed this year's promotion the Steam Summer Picnic Sale and the format is similar to how Steam ran its autumn and winter sales in 2015. Every game that is on sale today will remain at its current price for the duration of the sale. There are no Daily Deals or Flash Sales like in last year's summer sale.

Instead, Steam will highlight a new round of deals on its front page daily. Today's highlighted deals include This War of Mine for $4.99, (75%) Darkest Dungeon for $14.99 (40%) and Stardew Valley for $11.99. (20%) As in past years, some great deals on entire franchises are also available. Steam is currently running sales on games from the Arma, Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed and Lego series, among others.

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It's expected that most major discounts will be highlighted on the front page by the time the sale comes to a close but gamers looking for additional deals on day one will have to do some digging. Here are some additional discounts that might be worth looking at:

  • Rocket League: $11.99 (40 percent off)
  • Doom: $35.99 (40 percent off)
  • Grand Theft Auto 5: $35.99 (40 percent off)
  • Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number: $3.74 (75 percent off)
  • Payday 2: $5.00 (75 percent off)
  • Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut: $4.99 (75 percent off)
  • Fallout 4: $29.99 (50 percent off)
  • Rise of the Tomb Raider: $38.99 (35 percent off)

An FAQ on the sale page provides a guide on how to obtain this year's 10 trading cards. Cards can be earned through crafting badges, buying games or exploring the discovery queue. As always, gamers may also trade cards with other users or buy them from the community market.

When the current sale format took over last fall, it was speculated that Valve stopped running its daily deals and flash sales due to the Steam refund policy it enacted in 2015. With gamers now able to make a refund request on almost any game for a duration of time after purchasing, Valve would likely have been bombarded with refund requests every time a new game went on a flash sale.

Gamers on Reddit and the Steam forums still seem somewhat split on this new format. Not having to check Steam for more deals every eight to 12 hours is convenient but it does take away a bit of the excitement that Steam sales are known for.

Have you found any hidden gems in this year's summer sale, Ranters? Let us know in the comments.

The 2016 Steam Summer Sale runs from now until 1 p.m. ET on July 4.